The upcoming epic zombie show The Walking Dead is running full force with it's debut on AMC approaching close to this Halloween 2010. Aint It Cool News had a very long and in depth interview with the series' creator Robert Kirkman, where they discussed the show's graphic content, violence, actors and the writing. From the sounds of it - expect a very gory, amazing zombie experience that will hit home to fans and newcomers alike.
Kirkman talked at length about the actors' screen tests on the show saying,
"So basically they would come to me and they would say… for instance with Andrew Lincoln “This guy is really great. We really like him. Do you see him as Rick? What do you think about him?” In the case of Andrew, I was like “He’s perfect.” His screen test was great. He’s a really good actor. He’s not too terribly recognizable, so it’s not like I’m going to be sitting there “Oh no, that’s not Rick, I’ve seen him in other things,” so he was perfect and I responded and said “Yeah, that guy’s awesome. I would totally love it if he was Rick."
Kirkman went on to reveal Frank Darabont regular Jeffrey DeMunn's speculated role,
"I’m going to see if I can get a photo of me wearing Dale’s… Jeffrey DeMunn, who I guess I just revealed is playing Dale, which for some reason they never printed out and people were speculating as to who he was playing," said Kirman. "Yeah, it’s pretty obvious, but I’ve got to get that hat. I’ve got to wear that hat!"
Kirkman also revealed the show's episode length and is pretty confident we can expect many more of them after a short 6 episode season one, "It's an hour long," said Kirkman, "I don’t want to give you the impression that that’s already been picked up or anything (for season two). Everyone on the show is just assuming that it’s going to get a second season. We are all pretty optimistic because we know how good the show’s going to be."
The big issue that everyone is talking about will be the show's content and language restrictions on AMC, which Kirkman assures us, won't be an issue.
"You know, we just had a long meeting about this. There are some language restrictions. You’re not going to be dropping the F-bomb on AMC, which is fine. It’s not like if no one ever said the “f” word in WALKING DEAD the comic book, people would miss it," said Kirkman.
He then went on to say that every time something incredibly graphic and gory occurs on a show on AMC, that he can do the same thing in every minute of Walking Dead. AWESOME!
"I think the best way to put it is if you have ever watched BREAKING BAD…. they push the limit in BREAKING BAD quite often. There’s severed heads on the back of turtles, there’s liquefied bodies falling through ceilings, somebody just got their head blown off recently. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s very graphic nasty stuff that’s on BREAKING BAD all of the time and the thing that I was very excited to learn about AMC is that there is no limitation to how much of that you can have per episode or per hour or per minute." said Kirkman
Kirkman also went on to say that the zombies on the show will be very true to the comics zombies and artists Charlie Adlard's vision. This is also amazing news.
Speculation on the show being black and white was also brought up - since the comic is a black and white affair, Kirkman smashed the rumor straight up but didn't completely write it off for a home release,
"No, no there isn’t (going to be a black and white show). I have a concern that if people were flipping the channels and they saw something that was in black and white, they might think it was an old movie. It’s just something that’s usually not done on television and while I think it’s neat and I know Darabont likes black and white a lot, that’s why there’s a black and white version of THE MIST on the DVD and he wanted to do the movie in black and white originally. I don’t know that there’s going to be a black and white version of the show on the DVD. There might be, but it just doesn’t make sense as a television show for a lot of reasons." said Kirkman
Kirkman also went on to say that the show will follow the comic on some levels and on others it won't. New characters, ignored sub plots, added storylines, but familiar faces will eventually join the cast later on, including one of the most hated villians in Comic Book history - the Governor.
"Now we will probably eventually see The Governor because that is a big part of the comic book. So, there’s cool stuff like that that will definitely be making into the show if we continue on, but it’s not going to follow the comic book story for story. So, it’s probably not going to really catch up to it and hopefully it will go in a completely new direction, so that it will be two separate stories that people can enjoy together. " said Kirkman.
So there you go folks - tons and tons of details revealed. For the full and funny interview head over to Aint It Cool News on the link below.